‘New strain found in Maharashtra highly infectious’

Kolkata: The new strain found in Maharashtra is highly infectious, warns leading clinical trial specialist Dr Subhrajyoti Bhowmick.

“The new strain observed in some areas of Maharashtra is a concerning news. Genomic analysis of strains show that these are different from UK and South African strains and appear to be highly infectious,” he said.

“We need to be very careful in limiting the spread of this strain in India by strict isolation and contact tracing of the affected patients. Also, we cannot afford to be lax in our attitude to not carry on Covid19 appropriate behaviour like regular hand sanitization, wearing a mask and maintaining physical distancing as it will lead to disastrous consequences,” added Dr Bhowmick, India’s leading clinical trial specialist and Director with Peerless Hospital, Kolkata.

Dr Bhowmick has been at the forefront of clinical trials of vaccines and has been regularly updating on findings as well as developments in the vaccination programme.

The new strain of the virus is also causing pneumonia in patients in the early stages of the disease.

The death rate has not increased so far but it can increase anytime and primarily the spike in Covid-19 cases is because people are taking the disease very lightly. (UNI)